Cumberland Association Spring/Summer Celebrations

from our Association Clerk, Rev. Kelli Whitman
We will NOT gather for an in-person SPRING ASSOCIATION MEETING this year.  I’m sorry for the confusion. We are encouraging congregations to lift up the other churches in the Association in their prayers during the month of May and to send representatives to the installations that are coming up.  More resources for this are on their way.
We have several installations scheduled in May and June.  We hope the clergy and delegates across the association can attend these celebrations.
May 31, 1pm – Installation of Rev. Sheri Nelson at First Congregational Church New Gloucester (official announcement coming soon)
June 14 – Installation of Rev. Dr. Ezra Chapola at Casco Village Church
June 28, 3pm – Installation of Rev. Diann Bailey at First Parish Yarmouth rescheduled from January
Many of our congregations have welcomed new pastors in the past year, and we anticipate several additional installation services will be scheduled in the fall.
It is a joy to celebrate with one another as each of these congregations begins a new chapter in their ministry.

Questions about your congregation’s history?

There’s something for everyone in the line-up of classes and workshops this summer at the Congregational Library & Archives, 14 Beacon Street, Boston.  

Whether you’re interested in researching your family’s history, learning how to set up a church archive, or commemorating the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we hope you will join us this summer for a workshop at 14 Beacon or log on to one of our virtual classes from anywhere in the world.

Join us for a one-day, in-person workshop on finding and interpreting church records from New England’s Hidden Histories at 14 Beacon on Wednesday, June 17th.

Learn the basics of physically and intellectually arranging a church’s archive in a one-day, in-person workshop at 14 Beacon on Friday, August 28th.

Join a small group of other church archivists for a 5-session virtual class with the CLA’s archivists beginning Thursday, June 11th.

Join a small group of history enthusiasts to learn about religious life during the Revolutionary era in a 5-session virtual class beginning Tuesday, June 30th.

You are welcome to write to Rev. Linda Gard @ 4 Concord Place, Auburn 04210 if you have interest in/questions about the amazing resources of the Congregational Library!

 

The Maine School of Ministry (MESOM) Update

Plan now for Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 Classes!

  • New Testament: Gospels and Acts – Instructor Paul Day (In Person)
  • Leadership in Anxious Times – Instructor Todd Weir (Zoom)
  • New Testament: Hard Questions – Instructor Kelsey Wallace (Zoom)
  • History of World Christianities – Instructor Leah Rumsey (Zoom)

Tuition for a typical semester course is $375. MESOM semester courses are 24 real-time contact hours, with additional readings and assignments.

  • If you need a partial scholarship, please email Dean Malcolm Himschoot to make your request, mhimschoot@maineucc.org.

More information: www.maineucc.org/mesom/

2026 Fellowship Dues Rates and IRS Mileage Rates

2026 Fellowship Dues for the Maine Conference will be $20.43/member.   Conference Dues fluctuate year to year by the federally-established COLA rate, unless changed by special vote of the Conference at Annual Meeting.  

2026 Fellowship Dues for the Cumberland Association are  $2.10/member.  (Many churches do add Conference and Association Dues together to make one line item for their budgets, but we want you to know how the dues are actually assessed.)

2026 Fellowship Dues for each church are calculated on the number of members reported as of December 31, 2025.  Membership MUST be reported to the UCC via the UCC Data Hub by each church.  If you do not file your statistics with the UCC data hub, your church’s dues will be calculated on the most recent statistics you have filed on the Data Hub.  Data Hub reporting is done in January or February each year.

2026 DUES for both Association and Conference will be invoiced to churches in the Spring, and are due May 15th.  

Debra DeLong is our Cumberland Association Treasurer. All Maine Conference and Cumberland Association dues  (also Scholarship Fund donations) should be sent to Deb at her address -152 Puritan Drive, Westbrook, ME 04092. Her email address is djgdelong@gmail.com. Checks should still be made payable to the Cumberland Association and mailed to Deb’s home address.  She then forwards the Conference Dues to the Conference. 

For 2026, the standard mileage rate for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) is 72.5 cents per mile for business miles driven.  The tax-deductible mileage rate for volunteers (not employees) driving in service of charitable organizations:  $.14/mile (set by federal statute, not the IRS, and does not change annually).